Method and system for managing the end to end lifecycle of the virtualization environment for an appliance

ABSTRACT

A system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance includes a set of installation tools and an administration portal. A reference architecture for an appliance defines technology layers of an appliance. A partner ecosystem defines a delivery model of an appliance to a customer. A setup wizard tool is installing and configuring management software components, infrastructure software components, and application images on an appliance. An environment management module completes the installation and configuration of the management software components of a virtualization environment and provides ongoing management of the infrastructure software and management software components. An image management module stores the configuration of the application images and provides ongoing management of the application images. A catalog management module maintains a library of the application images. A user subscriptions module maintains a record of user subscriptions to the application images in the library.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/159,164, filed on May 8, 2015, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to delivery of turnkey business computing appliance and more particularly to a system for managing the end to end lifecycle across all of the components of the virtualization environment within an appliance in an integrated fashion and a reference architecture that enables high IOPS performance of storage and high availability of the virtualization environment.

2. Description of the Related Art

The traditional way the IT (Information Technology) systems are implemented including setup of a virtualization environment requires a set of manual steps for installing and configuring each of the management software and infrastructure software components on the top of a server hardware, manual effort of creating application images, provisioning users and assigning application images to users. These manual steps result in significant amount of effort and any issues with any of the software components may result in months of troubleshooting leading to delays. IT systems are often implemented directly on physical hardware with direct dependency on storage IOPS (Input Output Per Second) performance of the physical hardware. IT systems often lack high availability architecture to achieve the desired levels of reliability.

There has been a partial response to this problem. U.S. Pat. No. 8,863,124 issued to M. Aron entitled, “ARCHITECTURE FOR MANAGING I/O AND STORAGE FOR A VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT,” discloses an improved approach to implement I/O and storage device management in a virtualization environment. According to some approaches disclosed in that patent, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type of storage device, including directly attached storage in addition to networked and cloud storage. The Service VM implements the Storage Controller logic in the user space, and can be migrated as needed from one node to another. IP-based requests are used to send I/O request to the Service VMs. The Service VM can directly implement storage and I/O optimizations within the direct data access path, without the need for add-on products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a broad aspect, the present invention is a system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment. The system includes a set of installation tools and an administration portal. The set of installation tools includes a setup wizard tool and a configuration tool. The setup wizard tool is used for installing and configuring management software components, infrastructure software components, and application images on an appliance. The configuration tool provides standard variables information to the setup wizard tool. The administration portal includes an environment management module, an image management module, a catalog management module, a user subscriptions module, and a user management module. The environment management module completes the installation and configuration of the infrastructure software and management software components of a virtualization environment and provides ongoing management of the virtualization environment. The image management module stores the configuration of the application images and provides ongoing management of the application images. The catalog management module maintains a library of the application images. The user subscriptions module maintains a record of user subscriptions to the application images in the library. The user management module maintains a record of users in the system. The set of installation tools in the administration portal convert hardware into a working business computing environment. The administration portal enables users to subscribe and access the application images.

In one preferred embodiment, the set of installation tools further includes an assembler tool and a trace tool. The assembler tool reimages a server hardware and prepares it for the setup wizard tool. That trace tool allows tracking of issues and error logs during operation of the setup wizard tool.

In another broad aspect, the invention is embodied as a reference architecture for an appliance, defining technology layers of the system. The reference architecture includes a business users layer, an applications layer, a software layer, and operating system (OS) layer, an infrastructure software layer, and a hardware layer.

The business users layer describes the use cases of different roles in a system, using application images, wherein user onboarding tools provide business users information about how to use the system. The applications layer describes the application images used by business users and application images configuration information. The software layer describes the software products used in the system and software configuration information, wherein the software products create a virtualization environment and manage the application images that are running in virtual machines (VMs) created by an infrastructure software layer. The OS layer describes the operating systems (OSs) used by the system and OS configuration information. The OS templates are managed using an environment management module in an administration portal. The application images are built using the OS templates. The infrastructure software layer describes infrastructure software components used to create a server virtualization environment, the software components including a file server, a hypervisor, a host OS, and a software defined storage, wherein a set of IT operations tools are used to manage the infrastructure software components. The hardware layer describes a server bill of material and a server configuration. A set of installation tools deploy infrastructure software components on bare bone hardware. The administration portal is communicating with management software and infrastructure software components to automate workflows related to management of the system end to end.

The reference architecture preferably includes a user data layer and a devices layer. The user data layer describes filer server configuration information. User access control to the user data is managed by the administration portal. User data is produced as a result of business users working with the application images. The devices layer describes devices compatible with the system and devices configuration information. The business users are using devices to access application images using a remote access protocol. The integration between the infrastructure software layer and the hardware layer is creating high availability architecture using software defined storage and hypervisor technology. The servers in the hardware layer are configured in alignment with the requirements for in-memory caching of the software defined storage to create high IOPS performance of the storage resources in the system.

In another broad aspect, the invention is embodied as a partner ecosystem for delivering an appliance to a customer. The partner ecosystem includes a customer, software vendors, value added resellers, original equipment manufacturers (OEM), and an appliance vendor. The customer is the user of an appliance that is created out of multiple components, including software products per a reference architecture. The software vendors provide the software products, as a component within the appliance per the reference architecture. The value added resellers are responsible for services of implementing and sporting the appliance per the reference architecture and using an information technology service management (ITSM) framework. The OEM is responsible for assembly of appliance hardware per the reference architecture. The appliance vendor is responsible for defining the reference architecture, including an administration portal, other tools and the ITSM framework.

Other objects, advantages, and novel features will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment, of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the reference architecture for an appliance, in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the partner ecosystem for delivering an appliance to a customer, of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the integration of the administration portal, management software, and infrastructure software, of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the integration of the infrastructure software layer and the hardware layer of the reference architecture.

FIGS. 6A-F illustrate a series of appliances based on the reference architecture.

FIGS. 7A-B are mechanical diagrams illustrating a mini appliance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings and the characters of reference marked thereon, FIG. 1 illustrates the system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance, of the present invention, designated generally as 10. The system 10 includes a set of user onboarding tools 12, a set of installation tools 14, an administration portal 16, a set of user support tools 18, and a set of IT (Information Technology) operations tools 20. As used herein the term “virtualization environment” refers to application virtualization, desktop virtualization and server virtualization technologies that allow separation of an application, desktop operating system (OS) or server OS from the physical hardware. Server virtualization is enabled by a hypervisor technology when an OS image is running within a Virtual Machine (VM) created by the hypervisor. Desktop Virtualization is an extension of server virtualization, where additional software component called broker is establishing a remote access protocol connection between the client device and the OS running in a VM. Application virtualization refers to desktop virtualization technologies enabling individual access to applications and application streaming technologies that create a container with an application software and all the relevant OS components required to run this application. The term “appliance” refers to a turnkey IT system, a product resulting from putting together all the required layers of the reference architecture, installing and configuring all the components within each layer and providing a unified user interface to manage the IT system and consume resources of the IT system by business users. The term “installation tools” refers to a set of computer programs that provide automation of the software installation and configuration from bare metal hardware to a fully working IT system. The term “administration portal” refers to a web-application that is communicating with the management software and infrastructure software components and automate multiple workflows. The term “user support tools” refers to computer programs enabling resolution of user issues. The term “IT operations tools” refers to computer programs enabling maintenance and troubleshooting of the system.

A set of user onboarding tools 12 preferably includes a self-help tool 22. The self-help tool 22 allows users to access information about how the system works.

A set of installation tools 14 includes configuration tool 24 and setup wizard tool 26.

A configuration tool 24 allows editing and storing in an XML configuration file the standard variables information required by setup wizard tool 26 to install and configure the virtualization environment. This information includes but not limited to IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, time zones, computer host names, domain name, license information, communication ports and other data required to build a virtualization environment.

A setup wizard tool 26 installs and configures infrastructure software, management software and worker VMs on the system. The term “management software” refers to software products that enable server virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization described in a reference architecture as components within management software and infrastructure software layers and are accessed by system administrator. The term “worker VMs” refers to VMs with server OS or desktop OS that are used to run application images and are accessed by users.

A set of installation tools 14 preferably further includes an assembler tool 28 and trace tool 30. The assembler tool 28 installs a hypervisor on a bare metal server hardware using PXE (preboot execution environment) process and copies the software components to the server hardware. The trace tool 30 provides live insight into the ongoing activities during the setup wizard tool 26 operation and highlights any problems during the configuration process.

The administration portal 16 includes an environment management module 32, an image management module 34, a catalog management module 36, a user subscriptions module 38, and a user management module 40.

The environment management module 32 completes the installation and configuration of the management software components of a desktop virtualization environment and provides ongoing management of the virtualization environment.

The image management module 34 defines each image as a combination of VM, VHD and network templates and is used to configure and manage the application, desktop OS and server OS images.

The catalog management module 36 maintains a library of assets—a set of ready-made images based on the image management module templates. The term “assets” refers to application, desktop OS or server OS images available in the library.

The user subscriptions module 38 maintains a record of user subscriptions to the assets in the library.

The user management module 40 maintains a record of users in the system.

Thus, the set of installation tools 14 and the administration portal 16 convert bare bone hardware into a working virtualization environment. The administration portal 16 enables users to rapidly access applications as per user subscriptions.

The administration portal 16 preferably further includes a reseller management module 42, an organization management module 44, a provisioning module 46, a usage module 48, a capacity management module 50, a license management module 52, and a billing management module 54. The reseller management module 42 creates and manages multiple resellers per virtualization environment. The organization management module 44 creates and manages multiple organizations per one reseller. The provisioning module 46 allocates the necessary compute resources to VMs as per user subscription information. The usage module 48 is tracking the usage of compute resources by the users. The capacity management module 50 is tracking utilization information of hardware and generates monthly reports. The license management module 52 is tracking software licensing and application licensing utilization information and generates monthly reports. The billing management module 54 generates monthly invoicing data based on the user subscriptions and generates monthly reports.

The user support tools 18 preferably further includes an audit log module 56 and a support requests module 58. The audit log module 56 is tracking information about all steps involved in user login and application access process. The support requests module 58 is allowing users to submit their issues in form of service requests.

The IT operation tools 20 preferably further includes a monitoring tool 60 and a troubleshooting tool 62. The monitoring tool 60 collects information about hardware utilization and software performance metrics. The troubleshooting tool 62 enables engineers to quickly collect the required system information to troubleshoot user issues.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the reference architecture of the appliance of the present invention is illustrated, designated generally as 70. The reference architecture 70 includes multiple architecture layers such as business users layer 72, applications layer 78, management software layer 80, operating system layer 82, infrastructure software layer 84, and hardware layer 86.

The business users layer 72 is describing the use cases of users in different roles using the system.

The applications layer 78 is describing the applications used in the system and application configuration information.

The management software layer 80 describes the software products used in the system along with their configuration information.

The operating system layer 82 describes the OSs used by the system along with the Oss configuration information.

The infrastructure software layer 84 describes the infrastructure software components such as hypervisor, host OS, and software defined storage.

The hardware layer 86 describes standard server hardware configuration including bill of material information.

The reference architecture 70 preferably further includes additional architecture layers such as devices layer 74 and user data layer 76. The devices layer 74 describes the devices compatible with the virtualization environment and defines a device configuration information. The user data layer 76 describes the configuration information of file servers and methods to manage file access by users.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a partner ecosystem for delivering the appliance of the present invention is illustrated, designated generally as 88. The partner ecosystem 88 defines partner ecosystem players such as customers 90, software vendors 96, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) 98, value added resellers 102, and appliance vendor 104.

The customers 90 are the final receivers and users of the appliance 92.

The software vendors 96 provide the management, operating system and infrastructure software products used within the reference architecture 70 of the appliance 92.

The original equipment manufacturer 98 is responsible for assembly of appliance hardware based on reference architecture 70.

The value added resellers 102 are responsible for services of implementing and supporting the appliance 92.

The appliance vendor 104 is responsible for creating the reference architecture 70, including an administration portal and other tools, and providing the ITSM Framework 106 to the value added resellers 102.

The partner ecosystem 88 preferably further includes additional partner ecosystem players such as application vendors 94 and distributors 100. The application vendors 94 provide the application software used within the reference architecture 70. Distributors 100 are responsible for resell and delivery of the appliance hardware to the customer, resell of software licensing and application licensing.

Referring to FIG. 4 that illustrates integration between the administration portal 16 with management software layer 80 and infrastructure software layer 84 of the present invention, designated generally as 110. The administration portal 16 includes a web server 112, an application server 114 and a fabric 116. The management software layer 80 includes a Citrix XenDesktop 130, an active directory 132, and a SQL 134. The infrastructure software layer 84 includes a file server 144 and a hypervisor 146.

The web server 112 is providing the user interface 118 of the administration portal 16 and is connected using web services to the services façade 120 of the application server 114.

The platform service 122 of the application server 114 is executing the automated workflows and is using platform core 124 to communicate to services core 126 of the fabric 116 using pipes.

The services core 126 is using plugins 128 to communicate to components of the management software layer 80 and infrastructure software layer 84.

The management software layer 80 preferably further includes an SMTP server 136, a Citrix Desktop Director 138, a Microsoft Licensing Server 140, and a Citrix Licensing Server 142

Referring to FIG. 5, integration between the hardware layer 86 and infrastructure software layer 84, of the present invention, is illustrated, designated generally as 150. The hardware layer 86 includes primary server 158 and secondary server 160. The infrastructure software layer 84 is configured with a failover cluster 152 between primary server 158 and secondary server 160.

The failover cluster 152 is configured to manage high availability of a VM 161 provisioned on the top of a VM Disk CSV (Clustered Shared Volume) 163. In the event of primary server 158 failure, the CSV transitions a VM Disk CSV 163 to a VM Disk CSV 164 (VM Disk Failover). In the event of primary server 158 failure the failover cluster migrates the VM 161 running on the top of the VM Disk CSV 163 to a VM 162 on the top of a newly created VM Disk CSV 164 (VM Failover).

The VM Disk 163 is working off the iSCSI target provided by a software defined storage 166. The software defined storage 166 is configured in synchronous disk mirroring with software defined storage 168 that is servicing the iSCSI target to the VM Disk CSV 164. In such configuration, the data in the VM Disk CSV 164 is exactly the same as in the VM Disk CSV 163 that allows VM failover without any data loss.

The primary server 158 has an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 178 used as a boot disk. The secondary server 160 has an HDD 180 used as a boot disk.

The primary server 158 has a combination of an SSD (Solid State Drive) 182, an HDD 184 and an HDD 186 configured under software defined storage 166 in auto-tiering mode. The primary server 158 has a CPU 170 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 172 that are configured based on the workload of the server as per reference architecture and in alignment with in memory caching requirements of the software defined storage 166.

The secondary server 160 has a combination of an SSD (Solid State Drive) 188, an HDD 190 and an HDD 192 configured under software defined storage 168 in auto-tiering mode. The secondary server 160 has a CPU 174 and a RAM 176 that are configured based on the workload of the server as per reference architecture and in alignment with in memory caching requirements of the software defined storage 168.

Referring to FIGS. 6A-6F, a series of appliances based on reference architecture are illustrated. The series of appliances include mini appliance 202, small appliance tower 204, small appliance rackserver 206, medium appliance 208 in two rackservers configuration, large appliance 210 in rack configuration, and appliance cluster 212 in multiple racks configuration.

The mini appliance 202 is designed as a demo kit and for running up to 20 application virtualization users.

The small appliance tower 204 and small appliance rackserver 206 are designed for less than 50 user capacity.

The medium appliance 208 in two rackservers configuration is designed for up to 500 user capacity.

The large appliance 210 in a rack configuration is designed for up to 3000 user capacity.

The appliance cluster 212 in multiple racks configuration is designed for more than 3000 user capacity.

Referring to FIGS. 7A-7B, mechanical diagrams of the mini appliance 202 are illustrated. The mini appliance 202 includes an HDD 178. The mini appliance 202 includes a RAM 172.

The HDD 178 is used as a boot drive for the mini appliance.

The RAM 172 is the computer memory of a certain capacity predefined in the reference architecture and installed on to the motherboard of the mini appliance 202.

The inventions discussed herein are intended to be marketed under the trademark Desktop365®.

Other embodiments and configurations may be devised without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims. 

1. A system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance, comprising: a) a set of installation tools, comprising: i) a setup wizard tool for installing and configuring management software components, infrastructure software components, and application images in a virtualization environment of an appliance; and, ii) a configuration tool providing standard variables information to the setup wizard tool; and, b) an administration portal, comprising: i) an environment management module for completing the installation and configuration of the infrastructure software and management software components of a virtualization environment and providing ongoing management of the infrastructure software and management software components; ii) an image management module for completing the configuration of the application images and providing ongoing management of the application images; iii) a catalog management module for maintaining a library of the application images; iv) a user subscriptions module for maintaining a record of user subscriptions to the application images in the library; and, v) a user management module for maintaining a record of users in the system, wherein the set of installation tools and the administration portal convert hardware into a working appliance and wherein the administration portal enables users to subscribe and access the application images.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said set of installation tools further comprises: a) an assembler tool for reimaging a server hardware and preparing it for the setup wizard tool; and, b) a trace tool allowing tracking of issues and error logs during operation of the setup wizard tool.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein said administration portal further comprises, a) a reseller management module for creating and managing multiple value added resellers of the appliance; b) an organization management module for creating and managing multiple organizations per one reseller, with one or multiple organizations per a customer; c) a billing management module for generating monthly invoicing based on user subscriptions; and, d) a license management module for generating monthly software licensing utilization reports; e) a capacity management module for generating hardware capacity utilization reports; f) a provisioning module for provisioning application images to users based on the user subscriptions; and, g) a usage module for generating monthly usage reports based on the user subscriptions.
 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of user onboarding tools further comprising a self-help tool for users to learn about how to use the system during a user onboarding phase of a life-cycle.
 5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of user support tools further comprising, a) an audit log module to track user activities in the system for user support purposes; and, b) a support requests module for users to submit support requests in the system.
 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of information technology (IT) operations tools further comprising, a) a monitoring tool to collect information about hardware utilization and management software performance metrics; and, b) a troubleshooting tool for an engineer to quickly collect required information to troubleshoot user issues.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein said administration portal comprises: a) a web server for delivering a user interface of the administration portal; b) an application server comprising a services façade, a platform service, and, a platform core; and, c) a fabric for communication with the management software components and the infrastructure software components, said fabric comprising services core and plugins, wherein the plugins use API (Application Protocol Interface) and PowerShell commands.
 8. A reference architecture for an appliance, defining technology layers of an appliance, comprising: a) a business users layer for describing the use cases of different roles in a system, using application images, wherein user onboarding tools provide business users information about how to use the system; b) an applications layer for describing the application images used by business users and application images configuration information; c) a management software layer for describing software products used in the appliance and software configuration information, wherein the software products create a virtualization environment and manage the application images that are running in virtual machines (VMs) created by an infrastructure software layer; d) an operating system (OS) layer for describing operating systems (OSs) and OS configuration information, wherein said application images are built using the OS templates, wherein OS templates are managed using an environment management module in an administration portal; e) an infrastructure software layer for describing infrastructure software components used to create a server virtualization environment, said software components including a file server, a hypervisor, a host OS, and a software defined storage, wherein a set of IT operations tools are used to manage the infrastructure software components; and, f) a hardware layer for describing a server hardware bill of material and a server hardware configuration for a series of appliances, wherein a set of installation tools install infrastructure software components on bare bone hardware.
 9. The reference architecture for an appliance of claim 8, wherein said reference architecture further comprises: a) a user data layer for describing file server configuration information, wherein user access control to user data is managed by the administration portal, wherein user data is produced as a result of business users working with application images; and, b) a devices layer for describing devices compatible with the system and devices configuration information, wherein the business users are using devices to access application images using a remote access protocol.
 10. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said management software layer comprises: a) a Citrix XenDesktop for managing a desktop virtualization environment; b) an active directory for storing user authentication and authorization information and group policies for operating systems in the appliance; c) a SQL database for storing data of the Citrix XenDesktop and data of the administration portal; d) an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server for delivering notification emails to business users; e) a Citrix Desktop Director for monitoring the desktop virtualization environment; f) a Microsoft Licensing Server for tracking Microsoft licensing information; and, g) a Citrix Licensing Server for tracking Citrix licensing information.
 11. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said infrastructure software layer comprises: a) a file server for providing user data storage; and, b) a hypervisor for enabling server virtualization of the hardware.
 12. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said infrastructure software layer comprises: a) a primary server host OS and a secondary server host OS to run the software defined storage.
 13. The reference architecture of claim 8, wherein said hardware layer comprises a primary server and a secondary server to provide needed computing resources to the appliance.
 14. A partner ecosystem for delivering an appliance to a customer, comprising: a) customers being users of an appliance created out of multiple components per a reference architecture; b) software vendors providing software products, as a component within the appliance per the reference architecture; c) value added resellers responsible for services of implementing and supporting the appliance per the reference architecture and using an information technology service management (ITSM) framework to deliver their services; d) original equipment manufacturers (OEM) responsible for assembly of appliance hardware per the reference architecture; and, e) an appliance vendor responsible for creating the reference architecture, including an administration portal and other tools, and providing an ITSM Framework.
 15. The partner ecosystem of claim 14, further comprising: a) application vendors providing software for application images used within the reference architecture; and, b) distributors responsible for supply chain and delivery of OEM products to the customer, as well as reselling of software licenses and application licenses per reference architecture. 